Category: Holy guacamole (99)

Oliver “Dan” Durfey is not only running for office — he's also apparently on the run from lawmen.

On Friday, deputies issued a warrant for the arrest of 54-year-old Oliver “Dan” Durfey, of Kissimmee, to face charges of Scheming to Defraud, Grand Theft and Illegal Use of a Credit Card, according to a news release from the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

According to the affidavit, Durfey, who was employed as the church administrator for the First Baptist Church of Poinciana, used the church’s two checking accounts and one savings account from April 2010 to June 2012 for his own personal use, the release stated.

According to bank records, Durfey has stolen over $56,000 from the church using a debit card he obtained without the church's knowledge for transactions and withdrawals, investigators said.

Detectives also found out during this investigation that Durfey is running for Clerk of Courts in Osceola County. Elections for that office will be held this Tuesday.

His campaign website says he was born and raised in Miami and graduated from the University of Miami in 1980.

Durfey allegedly used church funds to pay for two booths at political venues for his campaign. His on-line Campaign Treasurer’s Report shows two $5,000 “loans” from himself that correspond to a time-frame in which he withdrew $5,000 from church’s checking account and then withdrew $9,000 from the church’s savings account, according to investigators.

Oliver Daniel Durfey has a criminal past, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office:

Johnny Nguyen, 50, was hauled off to the slammer after a woman called 911 to report a man throwing a screaming girl into a trunk of a car — at a church parking lot in Orlando, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

When the woman's hubby yelled at Nguyen, he then let the girl out.

Nguyen told a responding cop, who noted it was 97-degrees outside, "What you want here, I didn't do anything, she was only in trunk for few minutes."

Apparently this dude is not one of those 'Love Thy Neighbor' Christians.

Kenneth David Peterson, 51, allegedly claimed he was Jesus Christ and used a crowbar and another weapon to threaten his Palm Bay neighbor, who he said was the Antichrist, reports WKMG CBS News-6 in Orlando.

A group of Muslims was detained Wednesday at Orlando Sanford International Airport, apparently because Members of the group were lingering in the bathroom after asking for a cup of water, thus arousing suspicion, according to an Orlando Airport director, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told the Orlando Sentinel that devout Muslims customarily clean their private parts with water after using the restroom,a procedure known as istinja, and that is likely what members of the group were doing.

You could say Chuck Shriner got a bit of a black-eye during his high school graduation ceremony: While crossing the stage during Bishop Verot's graduation ceremony, he paused, dropped to one knee, and Tebow-ed his principal, reports the Naples Daily News.

NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has been credited for this trend. He randomly drops to one knee and begins praying.

The crowd burst into laughter; school administrators, however, frowned on Shiner's spontaneous gesture.

His punishment: No diploma until he made a clean sweep of things by cleaning the school's gym, where graduation was held.

Deputies say Adam David Shaw is the dude responsible or smashing the windows and spray-painting the walls of at least four houses of worship in Deland during two recent weekends, according to a news release from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office

Details of the release:
North Kepler Baptist Church had expletives spray-painted on some interior walls, food items from a refrigerator smashed and dumped all over and a laptop computer missing.

Another church had similar damage and a computer was also stolen from there.

On Sunday those two churches had been vandalized — again. This time mirrors were smashed, food was strewn all about and fire extinguishers had been discharged, the report states.

The vandal had also struck Seventh Day Adventist Church by smashing glass with a heavy object and then seemed to wander around inside causing random chaos, according to the release.

When deputies looked for evidence, they discovered fingerprints on broken glass at the Baptist Church.

Authorities determined the paw-prints belonged to Shaw.

Shaw admitted to striking several churches. However, he said that he had been drunk when he committed the crimes so he had trouble remembering the finer details of what he had done.

A North Naples woman reported about $2,200 she kept inside a Bible in her car trunk was stolen, reports the Naples Daily News.

Zachary Thomas Jones, 18, and the woman's 16-year-old daughter were busted by deputies who say the duo grabbed the woman's car keys while she was in the shower and then took the cash from the Bible in the trunk of the car.

Two men with guns burst into a Bible study group of 14 Korean students in a Gainesville apartment and robbed them, reports The Gainesville Sun.

Luckily, another resident living at a nearby apartment complex where the suspected bandits unloaded their goods, saw something strange — several people, including one dude still wearing his bandanna over his face, carrying laptops, purses, wallets and a camera to an apartment, according to the report.

Even better: The witness knew one of the suspects.

A few of those busted include Marcus Stephen Brantley, 21, of Gainesville; Martin Luc Cadet, 23, of Winter Garden; and Larance Colored Scott, 21, of Winter Garden.

A Jacksonville church has allowed a registered sex offender, Darrell Gilyard, to return to the pulpit, reports WJXT News-4 in Jacksonville.

Gilyard pleaded guilty to lewd conduct and lewd molestation involving underage girls in his congregation at Shiloh Baptist Church in 2009.

Gilyard began preaching recently at Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, which agreed to ban children from Sunday service since Gilyard is not allowed to have "unsupervised contact with children under 18 years old," documents show.

What were they thinking when they brought a gun inside the Lord's house?

Maybe they wanted to witness a baptism by fire.

As three men went into a St. Petersburg church closet on Sunday after services to examine a gun, it accidentally went off. The bullet pierced a wall before it struck the pastor's daughter in the head, critically wounding her, according to a news release from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

One of the three men, Dustin Bueller, the pastor's daughter's boyfriend, had approached Moises Zambrana, 48, about buying a gun for his upcoming 21st birthday. Zambrana agreed to show Bueller his firearm, a Reuger 9mm, according to the release.

The gun discharged while Zambrana was explaining the weapon’s safety features.

"The Zyklon," a carnival ride at this year's Broward County Fair shares a name with the poisonous gas used to kill millions in the Holocaust: Zyklon B was the name of the lethal cyanide gas used at Nazi death camps, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The ride's owner said Zyklon is German for cyclone.

But recently, the ride's owner did a little research and saw that the words were identical.

You're 14-years-old and bored with your Sunday worship service in Niceville.

Ok, kid, next time try daydreaming or text messaging your buddies.

Don't do this.

A 14-year-old boy was seen exposing himself, and possibly masturbating, by five individuals while in the First United Methodist Church sanctuary during two different Sunday morning services, according to a Niceville Police report, reports the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach.

The boy allegedly told officers he was "playing with it" because he "was bored," the report said.

According to a report obtained from the Clay County Sheriff's Office, Dr. Greg Neal was accused of secretly recording two women changing clothes in his office at Berean Baptist Church in Fleming Island way back in 2001. However, the tape was not turned over to authorities until this year, reports WJXT News-4 in Jacksonville.

Since the Statute of Limitations had expired, he cannot be prosecuted.

The tape was found through a blind pass: It was accidentally given to a church employee with some basketball tapes to review.

Cops say Eliseo Ortiz, 51, was heartless on Valentine's Day: He allegedly beat up Sister Nora Brick, an 82-year-old Bradenton nun who is barely 5-feet-tall and weighs just 100-lbs. The nun is known for her tireless efforts to help migrant farm-workers, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Someone broke into the Cha' bad Palm Beach Synagogue on Tuesday night and stole a special donation box that contained a very special $1 bill — it was blessed by a rabbi who died a few years ago, reports WPBF News-25 in West Palm Beach.

The synagogue is offering a $1,000 reward for the safe return of th edollar bill.

Two Jehovah's Witnesses alerted authorities after they witnessed two men walk from the back yard of an East Naples house with a large flat screen television in their hands and then place it into the trunk of a red Cadillac, reports the Naples Daily News.

When Collier County Sheriff's deputies arrived, the bandits were already gone.

But a home surveillance system caught them stealing a handgun, two rings, a camera, $4,000 worth of shoes and the 42-inch flat screen TV.

Chojnacki is accused of grabbing an undercover detective inappropriately, exposing himself and stating his desire to perform a sexual act to the undercover detective on Tuesday afternoon, according to a Sheriff's Office release.

In December 2009, the Diocese of Venice appointed Father Bernard Chojnacki as Parochial Vicar of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Port Charlotte. He lists his occupation as teacher and priest, according to the release.

Chojnacki was arrested and charged with exposure of sexual organs and battery. He posted $1,250 bond shortly after being booked into the Sarasota County jail, according to records.

Chojnacki, a native of Poland, was ordained in late 2009 and soon after assigned to the Port Charlotte church.

The mission has 4,000 crosses planted to commemorate the 4,000 abortions performed daily. That number comes from the St. Gerard House director, reports The St. Augustine Record.

The vandal has decorated the crosses with children's stickers, carved with random phrases. Also left at the display are Mary Kay products still in their boxes, music CDs, hair dryers and children's toys.

The vandal also piled sticks, palmetto fronds and branches into the outdoor altar, then scrawled phrases on pro-life signs, such as, "Happy endings all the time."

Framed children's pictures were set beneath the signs.

In a previous incident of vandalism, someone turned 400 of the crosses upside down in the ground.

Getting the good word out about a new church by advertising seems to be a necessary evil nowadays.

Pastor Moses Robbins and his Saturday Night Live Church advertise with a billboard along one of Lake County's busiest highways that reads ‘Scumbags Welcome!’ reports the Orlando Sentinel.

But don't expect to run into The Church Lady during services.

The church was named for its Saturday night services featuring a live rock band and not for the TV show, explains the pastor.

The inspiration for the billboard came from a Bible verse, Mark 2:13-17.

According to the New Living Translation, the passage tells of an encounter in which religious leaders questioned Jesus' disciples about Jesus associating with sinners, asking, "Why does he eat with such scum?"

So far the church has 50 members, but it looks like the pastor is hell-bent on recruiting more.

Photo: Pastor Moses Robbins, left, and Bobby Fiore are responsible for a billboard that reads "Scumbags Welcome!" that can be seen along U.S. Highway 441 in Tavares. The two are pictured at the SNL Church in Tavares on Thursday. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel / March 31, 2011)

Kimberly Wills, along with two men, is accused of stealing from two churches and had plans to steal from others, reports The Palm Beach Post.

Their scam: Wills would call churches and tell them that she was a single mom trying to support her two children. She would then tell them that she gave her son a $5 bill to put in the donation basket, but realized it was a $50 bill and needed the money back.

What she really wanted was cash for cigarettes, gas tank and and pills like the ones found in her purse.

Last summer televangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn, while still married, admitted to a friendship with another evangelist, Paula White — after The National Enquirer published photos of them in Rome, holding hands.

Not exactly the sort of image his publisher, Strang Communications Co. of Lake Mary, banks upon to sell his books.

Sister Nora Brick, who has been a nun for 64 years, has been helping the wayward in one of Bradenton's toughest areas at a mission which she launched to assist needy, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

On Monday evening — Valentine's Day — the nun was once again wearing her heart on her sleeve: Sister Nora, who is 81 years old and barely 5 feet tall, opened the door of her mobile home to a man who needed some food and a drink of water.

Her reward?

The man, described as weighing about 190 pounds, dragged the kindly nun to a bedroom and beat her, causing the poor nun to suffer a concussion and broken nose, before fleeing on a bike, reports the Herald-Tribune.

Manatee County Sheriff's deputies want to question Eliseo Ortiz in connection with the attack., according to the Herald-Tribune.

Bradley Kent Strott, of St. Petersburg, and Samad Ebadi were at Marsha's Wayside Inn bar in St. Petersburg on Friday evening, talking about religion. When Ebadi told Strott he was Muslim, investigators say Strott grabbed the victim by his shirt and stabbed him in the neck with a pocket knife, according to Tampa Bay Online.

Ebadi's son, Ali Ebadi, told TBO.com that his father was not seriously hurt. He also told TBO.com that he's upset that Strott wasn't charged with attempted murder and was released after just one night in jail

The 55-year-old twin sisters were on their way to church on Monday evening.

They had just started lifting the garage door at their home in Poinciana when the crook ran under the door, jumped into the back seat of their car, and robbed them at gunpoint, reports WFTV News in Orlando.

The sisters first asked the man if he needed a ride. But when he pulled out a gun and demanded cash, they realized he wasn't just an aggressive hitchhiker, reports WFTV News.

The thief grabbed a purse, but there was no cash in it — just an I.D. and a Bible, according to WFTV News.

The two sisters say they hope the crook opens the Bible up.

"If he cannot learn from that, then there's no hope for him," one sister told WFTV News.

Perhaps this crook is related to a Sanford area man who snatched a bag from an unlocked car in a Subway restaurant parking lot in December.

Inside the bag — a Bible.

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you might find — you get what you need.

In a Sunday sermon, Pastor Larry Perkins stood in his church's family-life center and preached to the children in his congregation: Believe in yourself and your future. Never give up the dream that God planted inside you. Never allow failure to stand in the way of success.

The next day, Perkins sat next to his attorney before a bankruptcy official, explaining why his Mission Road Church of God in Christ was unable to pay the $1.6 million it owed the bank for construction of the family-life center in Oviedo, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Bank of America contends that it worked with Mission Road to modify the loan several times, but the church defaulted on its $14,000-a-month payments in February 2008, forcing the foreclosure, reports the Sentinel.

What was once unheard of — a church declaring bankruptcy — has become increasingly common in this recession as declining collection-plate revenues make it harder to pay the bills.

In addition to Mission Road Church, Agape Assembly Baptist Church in Pine Hills and its economic-development ministry also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. The church, which is in foreclosure, listed assets of $6.5 million and debts of $6.6 million.

In the past year, an estimated 100 churches filed for bankruptcy, including the oldest black church in DeKalb County, Ga., and Robert Schuller's 10,000-member Crystal Cathedral megachurch in California. And churches aren't the only ones — a Boynton Beach synagogue filed bankruptcy last June.

"Churches are going through a very difficult time, but to actually file for bankruptcy is extremely unusual," Simeon May, chief executive for the Texas-based National Association of Church Business Administration, told the Orlando Sentinel.

Bankruptcy isn't always a case of churches living beyond their means. Churches often operate without large cash reserves. Their mission, as Christian organizations, is to use the money they collect to help others, not to "bury the gold" in a big bank account, said Marc McMurrin, executive director of operations for Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood.

Photo: Agape Assembly Baptist Church filed bankruptcy in December, claiming assets of less than $100,000 and debts as high as $20 million. (Sentinel staff / January 29, 2011)

Navarre resident Jackie Trebesh and her 19-year-old daughter went to mass on Friday at St. Sylvester’s Catholic Church in Gulf Breeze. But went they went to recieve Holy Communion they got a big surprise: The Rev. John Kelly turned them away, saying he would explain his actions after the Mass had ended, reports the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach.

At first, Jackie Trebesh told the Daily News, she wondered if she was being "pranked."

But the mom and daughter didn't to stick around to speak to The Rev. John Kelly. As they left the church's parking lot, a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy, sent for by the Rev. John Kelly, pulled them over. The deputy then gave them trepass warnings, banning them from the church's property, according to the Daily News.

Trebesh found out what all the brouhaha was all about: It seems that someone at the church had allegedly seen the daughter dispose of the communion host improperly in the church parking lot and told The Rev. John Kelly, reports the Daily News.

The Catholic Church believes the host is transformed during the Mass to the actual body of Christ.

Trebesh told the Daily News the only thing she could think of that someone might have seen her daughter “spit out a piece of gum in the parking lot.”

Trebesh also told the Daily News that no one from St. Sylvester’s Catholic Church has since contacted her.

Neighbors in Middleburg are working to figure out who might have stolen the most important part of their Christmas nativity scenes: The baby Jesus figurines from his and his neighbors' yards, reports WJXT News in Jacksonville.

"I'm just really frustrated, really sad somebody would do that," John Bowman told WJXT News. "Day after Christmas, my neighbor Bill told me his Baby Jesus was gone, he says," check yours." Of course, I found out mine was stolen."

From robbers wishing victims "Merry Christmas" to teens trying to break into a high school, crime did not take a holiday during the weekend in Orlando, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

It was a busy day as well at the Orange County Jail, where 50 new inmates were booked into the facility on Christmas Day.

Records show charges of domestic violence, child abuse and driving under the influence were common on Saturday.

At 2:50 a.m., a resident of Holly Gardens Apartments on South Orange Avenue was sitting on his front steps with a young woman when two armed robbers confronted them saying, "Merry Christmas," followed by a profanity, according to Orlando police.

The armed men beat the 24-year-old victim and robbed him of a laptop, cash and gift cards before fleeing on foot, a police report stated.

Also on Christmas, four teenagers — three boys and a girl — were caught at 12:42 a.m. trying to break into a hatch on the roof of Lake Nona High School.

All were charged with attempted burglary of an unoccupied structure, a report stated.

Two handguns, a pair of coin-operated gumball machines and a safe were stolen in burglaries reported during the day.

The most violent crime reported in the city happened at 9:30 p.m., when two armed home invaders broke into an apartment on South Kirkman Road.

Firing three or four shots, the men threatened a 33-year-old woman and demanded to know where her boyfriend was and the location of money kept in the apartment. Both men fled empty-handed without injuring anyone, a report stated.

So Siplin filed a resolution (SR 320) this week that would recognize "Merry Christmas" as the state of Florida's official greeting for December 25.

In the resolution, the Orlando Democrat writes that Christmas is a holiday of "great significance to most Americans" and that "many Christians and non-Christians" recognize the holiday as a time "to cherish and serve others."

It's not likely that a state employee would be punished for giving an alternate greeting. A resolution is often ceremonial and does not have the effect of law.

Renald Louis, a West Palm Beach man, celebrated his 26th birthday by smashing his neighbor's window with a rock because he wanted to get the "voodoo" spell off of him, reports The Palm Beach Post.

He also spent his birthday weekend in jail: Louis was arrested Sunday and charged with shooting or throwing a missile into a dwelling with intent to harm. On Monday morning in court, he was ordered held in lieu of $25,000 bail, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Delvin Carter, 45, told police that he heard a smashing sound coming from the living room of his home on High Street in West Palm Beach. His 23-year-old daughter had been sitting in the room at the time. Carter said he found a large stone and broken glass near his daughter.

He ran outside and saw his neighbor, Louis, walking toward his house while carrying another "large paver stone" — later described as a "brick."

Carter yelled at Louis to drop the stone, the report says, and he did.

When he asked why Louis threw the stone through the window, Louis allegedly said, "You put voodoo on me" and told Carter he wanted him to "take it off" of him, the report says.

Lula Bell the camel and her rider are unhurt after toppling onto audience members Thursday night during a rehearsal for a costumed Christmas pageant at the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, reports The Palm Beach Post.

Instead of folding into a sitting position (called "cushing"), Lula Bell balked, then stumbled and fell to her right, knocking the third wise man into the horrified audience, according to the Post.

No one was injured, including Lula Bell and her rider, Alex James, said Pastor Chuck Lewis, who is the producer of the pageant and benefit concert, called Project Christmas.

The camel belongs to Citra, Fla.-based Animals in Motion. The company trains and transports animals for movies, shows and private parties. A trainer with the company was guiding Lula Bell when she fell. Lewis said veterinarians were also on hand.

On Friday, Lewis was still evaluating whether to keep a donkey in the production, but said that some sheep and two lambs will definitely retain their roles.

Fireflight, a Lake County-based Christian rock band, lost $70,000 to $80,000 worth of equipment and merchandise Sunday night when the band's equipment trailer was stolen in Tavares, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Glenn Drennen, 34, of Tavares, discovered Monday afternoon that the 16-foot trailer was gone from where he parked it off County Road 561. He found the hitch lock on the ground, broken in half, police said.

Drennen, founder and guitarist for the five-member band, said the trailer had $10,000-$20,000 worth of merchandise and about $60,000 worth of equipment inside, including eight to 10 guitars, some of which were custom made; the band's drums and custom guitar amplifiers; stage equipment; banners; and wireless equipment.

The stolen items probably will take at least a month to replace, Drennen said. The band is scheduled for a show in Ennepetal, Germany, on Dec. 4 and another in Lynchburg, Va., on New Year's Eve. Band members plan to scrounge up enough equipment to still play those shows, Drennen said.

"It's only stuff and it can be replaced," he said. "It's going to be all right. We're going to get through it."

The group has been together for about 10 years and has been nominated for several Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, comparable to mainstream music's Grammy Awards.

The Chabad Jewish Center of Naples has a history of creating unusual menorahs for Hanukkah, and this year will be no exception: This year the children of the Chabad Hebrew School involved and built a menorah from Legos, the classic child’s building blocks, that will stand 12 feet tall once it is finished, reports the Naples Daily News.

The Chabad used the larger Duplo brand Legos, and finding enough has been a challenge. the menorah is expected to contain approximately 10,000 Lego pieces, reports the Naples Daily News.

Last year The Chabad Jewish Center of Naples built an aluminum menorah that towered more than 30 feet high, and had to be lighted with a cherry picker, according to the Naples Daily News.

Photo: Photo by LANCE SHEARER / Naples Daily News
Slated to be 12 feet high, the menorah will be the centerpiece of the Chabad Center's public Chanukah festival December 1 at the Village on Venetian Bay.

Cape Coral Mayor John Sullivan believes the moral character of the country is deteriorating, so he wants to put the Ten Commandments inside the City Council Chambers as a reminder to straighten up, reports The News-Press in Fort Myers.

“I don’t want to do this in a haphazard way or open up a can of worms, but I think it is a good idea,” Sullivan told The News-Press. “I don’t see this as separation of church and state. Our laws were built on the Ten Commandments. It’s getting back to our core values.”

The mayor asked the city's attorney to look into the matter.

The idea originally came from Cape Coral resident Dick Kalfus, who believes if God’s laws can be displayed at the U.S. Supreme Court, they can hang from a wall at Cape Coral City Hall, reports The News-Press.

“It’s good versus evil,” Kalfus told The News-Press. “People who are good will not hang their hat on this being a political or religious case. They will want to side with morality.”

Photo: The Ten Commandments monument is pictured at the State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala., in this Aug. 5, 2003, file photo. Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, Sept. 29, 2003, to allow his Ten Commandments monument to be displayed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building, contending such a ruling is long overdue. The monument was moved in August into a storage room, setting off two weeks of protests outside the building by Moore's supporters. (AP file photo)

It might not be unusual to hear the names of Tim Tebow and Jesus Christ uttered in the same sentence. The former Gator quarterback is open about his beliefs, after all.

But throw in President Barack Obama, and now it gets interesting.

What do the three share?

One man, John D. Gilliand, asked for restraining orders against each of them last week, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Gilliand explained in Alachua County court records that he felt threatened by Tebow, Obama and Jesus.

"I was trespassed from the Kangaroo Gas Station on University for saying T-Bo sucks," Gilliand wrote in the petition for injunction for protection against repeat violence against Tebow. "I personally hate any type of exercise although I feel Billy Blanks has a wonderful video."

Gilliand makes reference to Tebow, Obama and Jesus as part of gangs or making gang symbols at him. He states in all three that he is not a Gator and never went to Florida.

The petitions against all three were denied on the same day they were filed. As of Tuesday afternoon, Gilliand had filed a supplemental affadavit against Tebow and Obama to get the court to reconsider a restraining order.

An Aripeka man was arrested after deputies said he pulled a gun on a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses as they walked to his front door with hope of spreading peace and their religion, reports Bay News-9 in Tampa Bay.

Carla Dignall and Lenore Salvato were preaching in an Aripeka neighborhood when they approached the home of Rudolf Hellmold, 52. As the women were walking up the sidewalk to the front door, Hellmold appeared in the window next to the door, according to Bay News-9.

According to reports, Hellmold pointed a small silver handgun directly at them and yelled, "You [expletive] Jehovah's Witnesses, get the [expletive] off my property!"

The women left his property and called authorities. They told the responding officers that they were worried Hellmold was going to shoot them, reports Bay News-9.

When deputies spoke to Hellmold later, he admitted to pointing a loaded handgun at the women. He said they refused to identify themselves to him, and that one of them had reached into a bag. He said he became scared at that point, which was when he pointed the gun and yelled at them, the report said.

Hellmold was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault. He was taken to Hernando County Jail, where he was held in lieu of $14,000 bail, according to Bay News-9.

A Haines City pastor who volunteers as a chaplain for the Polk County Sheriff's Office is among 10 people arrested in a prostitution sting in Kissimmee, officials said yesterday, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Samuel Conley, 54, of Central Church of Christ in Haines City, is one of more than 380 volunteer providers of religious services through the Sheriff's Office, though he hasn't been active in the program of late, a Polk sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Conley, a father of five and a grandfather, was one of nine men and one woman arrested Thursday. Kissimmee detectives were conducting an Internet prostitution sting and a sting on the street.

The other men range in age from 30 to 69 and are from Osceola County and Orlando. The woman, Allison Rice, 36, is from Tavares. She advertised her services online, and a detective pretending to be a customer agreed to meet her, police said.

Monsignor John Scully was a pioneer priest. In six decades of service, he launched several Catholic schools and started parishes across the Tampa Bay area, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Monsignor Scully died Friday morning while celebrating Mass at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Valrico. The 86-year-old collapsed while consecrating the bread and wine, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

He "died with his boots on," St. Stephen's Father Bill Swengros tod the St. Petersburg Times.

"There's something, as a priest, very beautiful in the way he passed," Father Len Plazewski told the St. Petersburg Times.

Bishop Robert Lynch blogged, "It was precisely how he wished to go."

Starting in 1972, Monsignor Scully took annual mission trips to Africa. He was the founder of the Holy Family Parish in Nairobi, Kenya. He learned Swahili and Kikuyu, which he used to baptize and say Mass, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

He loved being a priest, and though he retired about a decade ago, leaving St. Theresa Catholic Church in Spring Hill, he still worked. He was a priest in residence at St. Stephen, where he
offered Mass and took confession, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

"He was really big on the Ten Commandments and he didn't mind calling people out (in the confessional)," Father Swengros told the St. Petersburg Times. "He was a little tough. … He didn't compromise."

And the parish loved it.

Photo: St. Petersburgh staff photo 2003
In 2003, Monsignor John Scully, left, then of St. Michaels Church in Hudson, and Mukundha Sastry observe a moment of silence for the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia during a memorial service at the Hindu Temple of Florida.

The members of the Normandy Park Baptist Church in Jacksonville want everyone to know how they feel about the person who stole three of their air conditioning units. All you have to do is read their sign, reports First Coast News in Jacksonville.

The sign in front of their church now says, "To whoever stole my air conditioners, you are going to need them, - God."

"Really just disappointed, disappointed somebody would do that and take the time to come and steal from a church," Pastor Troy Dixon told First Coast News.

The thief broke into fenced cages behind the church Friday night and didn't just take parts but stole the entire units.

"It was to let them know, no matter what you do you don't knock us down, the Lord continues to strengthen us and we continue to move forward with the mission he's given us," Dixon told First Coast News.

Thousands of motorcycles roared into and all around town. There was no shortage of hot babes, cold beer or booze to keep the nonstop party flowing.

But Chuck Pickett and John Britz didn't come to Bikeoberfest for the partying.

Through the years, these two Christian bikers said they have seen people having sex along the Daytona Beach street when the sun goes down. They have seen fornication. They have seen bikers get so drunk they don't know what they are doing. They hear profanity all the time. And they have heard the Lord's name taken in vain, reports The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

"This is nothing more than a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah," Britz told the News-Journal. "I call it that all the time."

On one of their Honda Goldwings are religious scenes: The Last Supper and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Noah's Ark is on there, reports the News-Journal.

Britz, 64, a retired tool-and-die maker from Pittsburgh, has been riding to Daytona Beach for motorcycle rallies like Biketoberfest and Bike Week for just over two decades — to serve God through his motorcycle ministry.

Pickett, 70, moved to Inglis in 2002 from Pittsburgh. He told the News-Journal he has been sober for 30 years with God's help and Alcoholics Anonymous. Bibles are stacked up on the back of Pickett's bike. Pickett said he collects pop and beer cans to raise money for the Bibles.

Britz wears a yellow shirt and black pants in a nod to his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers. He places religious pamphlets on the back of his motorcycle and even has black and yellow matchbooks with the message: "There's one true light that burns on ... and on ... and on ... Jesus," reports the News-Journal.

"I get the best of both worlds," Britz told the News-Journal. "I get the motorcycles and I got the Lord with me."

Photo: John Britz waits by his motorcycle, packed with free Bibles, to spread the word Thursday on Main Street in Daytona Beach. (The Daytona Beach News-Journal | Jim Tiller)

Last week a crook broke into a Springfield church called The Embassy and stole thousands of dollars in equipment. And now he has been forgiven by the church's leader, Pastor Garland Scott, reports WJXT News in Jacksonville.

Some of the items stolen from the church included keyboards, mixing boards, DVD recorders, microphones and Christmas lights.

Scott told WJXT News that after he found out he was robbed, he went out in the neighborhood looking for his belongings.

"So I went to the corner where the thugs hang out, the hoodlums, and say, 'Hey, y'all know me for a long time. What's going on? How could you do this?' " Scott told WJXT. "[I] came back to the church, and within an hour, the crack addicts, the thugs, they are all bringing stuff back piece by piece."

And the man who stole the items listened along with the rest of the congregation to Scott's sermon on Sunday: "He showed back up to church. We prayed for him. He cried and joined the church," Pastor Scott told WJXT News.

The burglar apparently was scared of retaliation from others in the community and wanted to change his life, reports WJXT News.

Heather Dunn attended a Sunday morning service at Living Waters Worship Center in Ocala. She put her purse under her seat, stepped away briefly and returned to find the purse missing, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies were called after the purse, minus Dunn's wallet and other items, was later found in a church bathroom.

In his report, the deputy noted that a security video of the congregation showed two suspects, later identified as Sunshine Wagner, 30, and Raeanne Clever, 20, leaving their seats and sitting near where the purse had been left, reports the Ocala Star-Banner.

The deputy found the women at a nearby home and asked them to step outside with their purses. Both told the deputy they didn't have the victim's money and began dumping out their purses, reports the Ocala Star-Banner.

Inside one purse was a glass pipe commonly used for smoking marijuana, so the deputy moved to arrest Wagner, who reportedly resisted.

During a tussle, Wagner grabbed something out of her bra before the deputy was able to arrest her: In her fist was $75 in crumpled bills. Meanwhile, Clever attempted to stuff money and some pills into the liner of a child's car seat nearby, the deputy alleged, according to the Ocala Star-Banner.

Clever reportedly told the deputy she took the purse, then left it in the church bathroom, while Wagner kept the victim's CDs, car phone charger, hair spray and lotion, reports the Ocala Star-Banner.

Pastor Jim Sims of the Grace Fellowship Church, which meets in the Acreage every week at Seminole Ridge High School, has a a semitrailer full of pumpkins due to arrive in just 16 days — but no patch to put them in, reports The Palm Beach Post.

The church planned to set up its pumpkin patch sale on three acres it owns in Loxhatchee, but the county squashed the plan, saying the church did not have the right zoning approvals to sell the pumpkins there, reports the Post.

Barbara Alterman, head of the county's Planning, Zoning and Building Department, won't budge an inch on the issue. Rules are rules and pumpkins could be dangerous because of the crowds they generate, she told the Post.

Alterman says the church might qualify for a roadside vendor permit, but that would mean the pumpkins would have to be hauled away at the end of the sale each night.

So, does this make the county administrators a bunch of jacko...lanterns?

When Jews at Congregation Chabad-Lubavitch west of Boynton Beach gather today for the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish holidays, they will be under a cloud of uncertainty, reports The Palm Beach Post.

A bank is seeking to grab the Chabad's property and assets to pay off a delinquent loan.

Among those assets are the congregation's five Torahs.

Threatening to seize the Torahs is "a desecration," Howard Dubosar, a Chabad attorney, told the Post. "This is a bank playing hardball."

David Seleski, president of Stonegate Bank, said the bank isn't trying to attack the Chabad through its religion. "We just want to get paid," Seleski said.

But Chabad lawyers are equally upset about the timing of a legal action by the Fort Lauderdale-based bank. Stonegate is seeking to proceed with a foreclosure of the Chabad property, despite the synagogue's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in June. Normally, Chapter 11 puts a halt to all litigation.

But earlier this month Stonegate filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to allow its foreclosure lawsuit to go ahead anyway, arguing that the Chabad's bankruptcy filing was done in bad faith and was simply a bid "to stall for more time."

The motion was filed on Sept. 10, which was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

Dubosar said that the filing was "calculated to harm the psyche of this religious institution. This is the holiest time of the year. It's like foreclosing on a church on Christmas Eve."

Stonegate's Seleski said the Rosh Hashana filing date was not deliberate.

"Oh, too bad," Seleski said. "I don't think it's appropriate that they're not paying their loan back. I'm not aware of any holiday. My job is to collect as much money as I can for our shareholders."

The bad blood between the Orthodox Jewish congregation and the bank has its roots in a 2007 loan. That loan, for $3.8 million, was made by Stonegate for a planned expansion of Chabad's campus that never took place. In a September 2009 lawsuit, the Chabad accused the bank of engaging in a "bait-and-switch." The Chabad alleged the bank didn't make good on promises to provide additional financing in the form of a bond that would have paid off the loan and allowed the expansion to proceed.

Stonegate fired back in October with a foreclosure lawsuit. Documents recorded with the loan allow the bank to seize the Chabad's assets and all member pledges, according to Palm Beach County records.

For the Chabad congregants worshipping during these High Holy Days, many wonder if this is the last time they'll see their Torahs.

"We will be sensitive to the issues surrounding any religious artifact," Seleski assured. "We're not going to go in there and burn them."

But Rabbi Moshe Scheiner of the Palm Beach Congregation on Palm Beach said the Torah should not even be part of the discussion.

"The Torah is the most sacred object in Judaism," Scheiner said. "I don't think it should be treated like a commodity. It is the soul of a congregation, and you can't repossess a soul."

The Chabad soon will find out whether the bank is willing to let the congregation keep its property.

A hearing on the bank's motion is set for Sept. 24.

That is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a festival commemorating the harvest.

Photo: Taylor Jones / ThePalm Beach Post
Morton Ben carries one of four Torahs in a lively walk around a table during the dedication ceremony at Congregation Chabad-Lubavitch in 2001.

The visibly religious community known as the Home of the Mother will be leaving Ave Maria University's campus this week after allegations surfaced that Sister Maria Elena, the nun supervising the Women's Discernment program, which helps young women determine if they have a calling to the religious life, "was responsible for immoral conduct" last year, the university announced Tuesday.

According to an initial story on community news website AveHerald.com, Sister Maria Elena was accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

The religious group, which is based in Spain and known also by its Spanish name Hogar de la Madre, recalled the nun after learning of accusations that she had an inappropriate relationship with an adult female student in the program. The incident was not reported to the university; the superiors at the Home of the Mother also failed to follow Vatican-prescribed procedures for handling such incidents, according to the Naples Daily News.

The Home of the Mother group has been on the AMU campus since the 2004-2005 academic year — the school's second year in Florida. Its nuns are known for their all-white habits.

The group has drawn both strong supporters and detractors in their time at Ave Maria, with some people admiring them for their evangelical fervor and others denouncing them as controlling and cult-like, reports the Naples Daily News.

Healy said the university is reviewing the future of the Women's Discernment program on campus, which currently has about 15 young women, according to the Naples Daily News.

It appears Sister Maria Elena discerned she no longer had a vocation.

Will she have to give up her habit?

Here's a typical day in the life of a Servant nun of this order, according to their website, the Home of the Mother:

The Servant Sisters keep silence from the time of Vespers in the evening until the following morning after prayer.
Every morning we do an hour of mental prayer with the Blessed Sacrament exposed and a half an hour in the evening. We pray the Rosary daily and, on feast days of Our Blessed Mother and the evening before, we pray it with greater solemnity. On Thursday nights we do turns of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, uniting ourselves to the sufferings of Jesus Christ in his Passion. Similarly, wherever we go, we try to introduce — or to recover in many cases — the Holy Hours in the parishes, with the conviction that God is alive, is effective, and continues to convert people. Our main task is to bring everyone, from children to adults, to adoration of the Eucharist. The Lord himself will take care of the rest. Every month we have a day of retreat and every year, Spiritual Exercises in solitude and silence.

Ave Maria, located east of Naples, was founded by uber-Catholic Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza and chairman of the Ave Maria Foundation.

A Christian minister said Tuesday that he will go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran this weekend to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite a warning from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops, reports the Associated Press.

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center said he understands Gen. David Petraeus' concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks.

He left the door open to change his mind, however, saying that he is still praying about his decision.

Petraeus warned Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence."

Jones told the AP in a phone interview that he is also concerned but wonders how many times the U.S. can back down.

"We think it's time to turn the tables, and instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, we put the blame where it belongs — on the people who would do it," he said. "And maybe instead of addressing us, we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form."

Jones, who runs the small, evangelical Christian church in Gainesville with an anti-Islam philosophy, says he has received more than 100 death threats and has started wearing a .40-caliber pistol strapped to his hip.

The threats started not long after the 58-year-old minister proclaimed in July that he would stage "International Burn a Quran Day." Supporters have been mailing copies of the Islamic holy text to his Dove World Outreach Center to be incinerated in a bonfire that evening.

The fire department has denied Jones a required burn permit for Sept. 11, but he has vowed to go ahead with his event.

Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.

Jones, who has about 50 followers, gained some local notoriety last year when he posted signs in front of his small church proclaiming "Islam is of the Devil."

The Quran, according to Jones, is "evil" because it espouses something other than the Christian biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.

"Whenever there's a perception that America is somehow anti-Muslim, that harms our image and interests around the Islamic world," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights group that has worked to discredit Jones and counter his message.

Representatives of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville say they will burn a Quran outside the church on Sept. 11 and are encouraging others to follow their example, reports theOrlando Sentinel.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on American Muslims to respond to this church’s planned “International Burn a Koran Day” by hosting educational “Share the Quran” Ramadan fast-breaking dinners (iftars), at which copies of Islam’s holy text will be distributed to neighbors, public and law enforcement officials, and journalists.

This is the same controversial church that has been in the news for claiming that “Islam is of the devil” and for protesting recently outside a mosque.

It was the first time the craft — it’s a 60-foot-by-30-foot hull with a chapel on top that includes a steeple, stained glass windows, vaulted ceiling and oak pews — has ever been used for nondenominational, nonaffiliated Sunday worship, reports the Herald.

The floating chapel travels roughly three miles, cruising wherever Orca Fisher and Jill Chandler Fisher, the vessel’s owners, desire. There is no fee, although a "love offering" is taken. Seats are first-come, first-served for first 110 passengers that show up on Sundays, reports the Herald.

Inspirational teacher Gloria Ponziano told the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale during part of the cruise, reports the Herald.

Guess it's as close to walking on water as you'll ever get.

Photo: RICHARD DYMOND / The Bradenton Herald
Some of the roughly 90 passengers disembark from the Floating Chapel on the Bay

DeLand Police charged Nicholas Peck, 20, with simple battery after he head-butted a street preacher shortly after midnight near Half-Time Sports Bar in Downtown Deland, reports The West Volusia Beacon.

A witness caught the head-butt on video and turned it into the police.

In the video Peck tells the street preacher that he will go to hell. In return the preacher tells Peck that Peck will go to jail, reports The Beacon.

According to police Peck was drunk — not to mention too young to be legally drinking.

Street preachers from the nearby Bible Baptist Church in DeLand are known to preach in the bar-littered area, according to The Beacon.

It seems alcohol and religion are a potent mix in Deland: A previous arrest was made there in May 2009, after another man, Justin Eiland, and street preachers engaged in a confrontation that was captured on video by Beacon photographer, reports The Beacon.

Photo: COURTESY DELAND POLICE DEPARTMENT / The West Volusia Beacon
Confrontation — Nicholas Peck, 20, of DeLand, facing the camera, was arrested for simple battery after a confrontation with street preachers just after midnight July 17 in Downtown DeLand.

He's doing it, he told the Ledger, just to show solidarity with people he has come to know over the past couple of years. He said the 10 weeks he has spent this summer living with the homeless grew out of Christian convictions acquired over the past several years, reports the Ledger.

Seeley, 24, comes from "a pretty wealthy family" in Long Island, N.Y., and could easily have spent his summer in comfort, reports the Ledger.

Southeastern, which describes itself as a "Christ-centered university," is allowing the experience to be counted as a summer internship, reports the Ledger.

"People aren't closer to God based on the fact they're poor, but if they are, poverty leads them to depend on God more. The point Jesus makes is that the reason the poor are blessed is because they are totally dependent on God on a level maybe a rich person isn't," Seeley told the Ledger.

Photo: Cindy Skop | The Ledger
Southeastern University student Brian Seeley, right, sits with his friend Donna Leslie outside a day labor facility in Lakeland. Leslie did not get to work that day and says it's hard for women to get day labor.

Skipper Calder, founder of Cowboy-up Ministry, grew up the next town over in Wauchula, where his father helped manage a 3,500-acre cattle ranch, He later married and had two children. For work he did everything from from driving cattle to growing citrus to training unruly horses. For 20 years, he rode the rodeo circuit, winning seven team roping saddles and numerous buckles — and breaking about 37 bones along the way, reports Tampa Bay Online.

There was plenty of opportunity to choose the wrong path.

But Calder says he got two second chances in life: One was marrying Kathy and the other was finding Reality Church in Zolfo Springs, led by quadriplegic rodeo chaplain Randy Johnson, reports Tampa Bay Online.

Johnson ordained Calder, giving him a calling card that would guarantee access to prisons and hospitals. Three years ago, Calder got Johnson's blessing to start his own ministry, reports Tampa Bay Online.

Calder measures his success with a bridle rope that he carries with him. For every baptism, he makes a knot — there are currently 20 knots.

And his congregants like what they hear.

This is God's church," Jimmy Foster of Odessa told Tampa Bay Online. "It's not about the walls, the fancy building, the gold collection plates. It's about God's word. That's what's preached here, with a touch of horse training."

I'm learning about God and horses at the same time. Seems like every time I leave here, I go home with a good message that makes sense," Browning says. And, he says, "I don't have to take off my hat," Lee Browning, 50, told Tampa Bay Online.

Sounds like good horse sense.

Photo: Tampa Bay Online staff photo by JIM REED
Cowboy Skipper Calder preaches as he works his horse. Calder, who considers himself Florida's original cracker cowboy preacher, sets up service every Sunday on a ranch and uses horses to teach Scriptures.

Shop owner Miriam Pacheco, told him he was a "dead man" and only she could help and treated him with ritualistic ceremonies involving a dead bird, a sacrificed rooster, liquid potions, prayers and chants, reports The Naples Daily News.

Eventually the woman got Vincenzi to sign away his motel to her -- then she evicted him.

The website for Botanica 7 Potensias Africanas says "Our botanica is best known for being one of a kind, experience it for your self."

Shannon Hayes, a veteran Tampa teacher of 23 years, has launched her career Plan B: beach flip-flops imprinted with Scriptures!

"I know what a divine calling is now," Shannon Hayes told TBO.com, "I know that sounds kinda weird, but I really do feel that God told me to do this. And I see that every time I'm worried or stressed out about something, he points me in a new direction and it all works out. So I know it was the right thing to do."

She calls her line "Walk the Walk" flip-flops. She chose five Scriptures relating to the Christian walk and five colors. She sells them for $20 (shipping extra) on her website, www.walkthewalkflipflops .com, reports Tampa Bay Online.

"As Christians, my belief is that the word [the Bible] is our road map for life," she says. "It's supposed to put us in the right direction. The flip-flips come with a subtle message to keep on track and keep God first. In this day and age, anything helps," reports TBO.com.

Police are seeking a man who broke into St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday night, took a crucifix from the altar and used it to pry open a donation box. He fled with an unknown amount of cash, reports the Sun Sentinel.

Security cameras videotaped the man prying open the donation box beneath a display of candles used for religious ceremonies at the church. He had entered the church through a broken window, police said.

Police are seeking a slender white man with a tattoo on the outside of his right shin.

If he’s found, God may forgive him but the justice system probably won’t.

Photo: The suspect is described as a white male, with a thin build, with what appears to be a tattoo on the outside portion of his right lower leg. Police say he might have suffered a significant cut. (FLPD / July 1, 2010)

Jarretta Hamilton taught fourth-graders at Southland Christian School in St. Cloud.

Shortly after Hamilton was married last year, she and her husband discovered they were pregnant. Hamilton asked school administrators about maternity leave.

"That's when the question was posed to her, 'Did you conceive prior to marriage?' " said Hamilton's attorney, Edward R. Gay, reports ClickOrlando.com.

Hamilton admitted the baby was conceived three weeks before her wedding, reports Clickorlando.com.

She was fired one week later.

The school wrote a letter to Hamilton's lawyer explaining their stance: "Jarretta was asked not to return because of a moral issue that was disregarded, namely fornication — sex outside of marriage," states Southland Christian School administrator Julie Ennis. "We request that Jarretta withdraw her complaint and consider the testimony of the Lord."

But it looks like she is putting her faith in the law: she's suing the school for violating a federal pregnancy discrimination law and a state law prohibiting discrimination based on marital status, reports ClickOrlando.com.

Twelve Destin area pastors and city leaders embarked on a spiritual journey on the Gulf of Mexico's waters to end the oil spill crisis that is now threatening their shores.

They gathered aboard the Innkeeper for a trip out into the Gulf to pray that the gushing oil would stop and that any oil coming their way would dissipate, reports The Destin Log.

“As we were praying, two dolphins came to the front of our boat and escorted us for the next 30 to 45 minutes. We saw at least 10 dolphins encompassing the Innkeeper. We said the dolphins were the oceans ‘angels’ that were assigned as our escort. Oddly enough, once we stopped praying, the ‘escorting dolphins’ disappeared," Pastor David Butler of Faith Assembly Christian Church told The Destin Log.

Pastor Paul Kummer of Grace Lutheran Church in Destin said they are waiting for "God to give creative wisdom to BP and authorities how to solve this and for God to heal the Gulf waters, so that the only oil on our beaches is suntan oil."

Photo: Special to The Destin Log
Prayer team: Pastors Tom Hamon, Christian International (from left), David Butler, Faith Assembly, and Paul Kummer, Grace Lutheran Church, were aboard the Innkeeper in the Gulf.

Some residents are trying to stop a church from putting up a giant cell phone tower that would look like a cross next to a church near Longwood. They protested outside the Rolling Hills Moravian church Friday night, reports WFTV News in Orlando.

They're worried about their property values.

T-mobile wants to build the 13-story high structure. If the tower gets approved, T-mobile would pay the church a monthly fee, reports WFTV.

Cell phone towers are commonplace in neighborhoods across Central Florida. Some companies try to blend them in with the landscape. Some towers are even shaped to look like trees.

Last year T-Mobile did this at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Lake Worth, WPBF-TV News in West Palm Beach reported at the time.

This one will be another cross to bear.

Photo: WBBF TV News
This 100-foot cross at Epiphany Lutheran Church is being converted into a cell phone tower.

The Stations are a symbolic pilgrimage along the route Jesus took in Jerusalem on the way to his death. The devotion is usually done on foot, with worshipers following a priest to several plaques, where he gives a meditation on each event.

At St. Vincent, they'll watch about 80 costumed members do short dramas on small sets, including a mountain and a street scene.

"We have a lot of older members who find it hard to walk," explained Robert Ciantelli, who will direct the performers, including 11 as Jesus and two as Pontius Pilate. "We can also show it to more people this way."

State and federal authorities raided the Hialeah home of Charles L. Stewart earlier this year after learning he had a large box full of snails that grow to be up to 10 inches long, according to a search warrant filed recently in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

And these snails were anything but ordinary ...

The snails, native to East Africa, are considered highly dangerous because they can consume up to 500 species of plants. They even eat plaster and stucco. Having both male and female reproductive organs, they can lay up to 1,200 eggs a year.

Stewart, 48, whom court documents describe as "El Africano'' or "Oloye Ifatoku," said he practices the traditional African religion of Ifa Orisha, which is often confused with the Cuban Santeria.

He was able to convince his followers to drink snail juice as part of a religious healing ritual. One witness said Stewart himself eats the raw snails, according to the warrant.

Another witness told investigators that during the ritual, Stewart would grab a snail from the cage and "hold it over the devotee, then cuts the [snail] and pours the raw fluid directly from the still live [snail] into the mouth of the devotee."

Several followers became violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their bellies, the warrant said, reports The Miami Herald.

Consuming snail mucus or eating snail meat as part of a Santeria ritual is "unheard of," said prominent Santeria priest Ernesto Pichardo.

Authorities are warning South Florida residents to report any sightings of the giant snails, which are considered an invasive species harmful to people and Florida plants.

Photo: The snails, of the species Achatina fulica, can be imported into the United States only with special permits, and for scientific research only. (USDA)

We didn't know God liked to shoot people. But we're not Kathleen Aceto, who claimed to be God's messenger.

The Merritt Island woman delivered a hard-hitting message to her neighbors -- she showed up with a gun at her neighbor's back porch and shot at a family,

According to Maj. Andrew Walters of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, Aceto, 47, knew the family and had Christmas dinner with them last year. Aceto lives at a house on 470 Monitor St., less than a block away from the scene of the shooting, reports Florida Today.

"She told them that God told her to do it," Walters said.

But a man in the house grabbed a gun and fired back at Aceto, who ran away and hid.

"We would like to send them a message," said Terry Kemple, President of the Community Issues Council that is organizing a boycott of Pepsi products because he says it "advocates the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle."

He said that Pepsi donated more than a million dollars to organizations that fought California's gay marriage-banning Proposition 8. He also says the company has sponsored gay pride parades and commercials that accept cross-dressing and homosexuality.

"They (have) begun to utilize the money we've helped them build up to trample on what we consider family values," Kemple says.

Earlier this year the Bell Shoals Baptist Church's Christian Awareness Report said that "Pepsi also forces its employees to attend sexual orientation and gender identity diversity training, where they are taught to accept homosexuality."

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, called the boycott offensive to her and embarrassing to those who participate.

"The irony is that - in moving from Pepsi products to Coke products - they actually switched from one company that supports full-equality to another company that supports full-equality," Smith said.

Pepsi is one of the largest corporations in the country, boasting subsidiaries like Gatorade, Tropicana, Frito-Lay and Quaker. Calls to the company's headquarters went unreturned on Tuesday.

Representatives from the Bell Shoals Baptist Church, which draws several thousand members every Sunday, declined comment as well.

"We're concerned about that diminishment of the ability of Christians to speak what the Bible says," Kemple says.

Rev. Geoffrey Lentz, associate minister at the church, says that "U2's music is so deeply spiritual that I think the corporate worship setting is the perfect place for it."

U2charist songs will include "Where the Streets Have No Name," "With or Without You," "One" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." "Beautiful Day" will kick off the service.

"It's exciting for the oldest Protestant church in Pensacola to have a cutting edge worship service," Lentz said.

The first U2charist was developed in the Episcopal Church in 2003. Since then, the service has become popular with various denominations. The cause-conscious Irish rock band doesn't require churches to pay song copyright fees as long as offerings are taken to benefit global poverty, reports the Pensacola News Journal.

The odd thing is Williams, 19, had just been released from the Leon County Jail two days prior after being arrested May 6 for burglarizing the same church, according to a Tallahassee police official.

Williams was found sleeping in a stolen church van then, too.

“I don’t want to sound unchristian, but that’s just dumb,” said Rick Stewart, minister of education and administration for Immanuel Baptist Church.

Stewart said the same office window at the church was broken into both times and that Williams knew where the keys were because he was a part-time janitor at the church several years ago. Williams is not a church member.

A federal judge has filed criminal contempt charges against Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman alleging they violated a court order by offering a blessing at a school-sponsored luncheon reports WEAR-TV News

That was just nine days after Rodgers issued an order, prohibiting school officials in the
Santa Rosa district from promoting or endorsing any prayers or religious activities at school sponsored events.

This school has been battling this issue for almost a year. Remember their graduation ceremony last June?

At that time, the Santa Rosa School District landed in court because two students claimed teachers at Pace High School were endorsing religion.

As a result, class officers could not speak at graduation because teachers voted in their election. Therefore anything they said could be construed by some as being endorsed by the school.

Some members of the senior class weren't happy about the decision. So they staged a protest.

First they painted crosses on their caps.

Then a sizable number of graduates stood and recited the The Lord's Prayer.

Now Attorney Harry Mihet with the Religious Based Liberty Counsel of Orlando plans to take issue with this latest prayer flap.

He says no matter if the allegations are civil or criminal, he's confident his clients did nothing wrong.

"The blessing of the meal did take place. What we will show the court is that the manner in which it took place and the circumstances in which it took place did not violate the court's preliminary injunction."

See, the Kissimmee city commissioners want to change their folksy logo for the former cow capital of Florida.

The old logo featured a Brahman bull and includes palm trees against a lake and setting sun.

This time, they want to incorporate the motto "In God We Trust."

Commissioner Art Otero, who proposed the addition, said he suggested the change because he doesn't agree with the direction the country is going under the Obama administration.

"This nation has been moving toward more liberal postures such as homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion and the legalization of marijuana," Otero said.

"I'm against that way of thinking. Those are not the values upon which this nation was founded. I think we need to fight for the values we're losing," reports the Orlando Sentinel.

The logo changes, if approved by the commission next month, would be phased in over five years. The $200,000 cost would be spread over that time. Most of that money, City Manager Mark Durbin said, would have been spent anyway.

"We're not going to throw away the stationery we're now using," Durbin said. "But when we run out, probably in a year or so, we will make the changes. We would've had to buy more anyway."

When told of the $250 cost of carving the phrase into the wooden seal adorning commission chambers, Kissimmee Mayor Jim Swan said: "I do want to see 'In God We Trust' added. I'll pay for half of it."

Now, about the guy who dislikes "liberal postures" and serves up the principals on which our country was founded.....

Wonder if he knows much about Thomas Jefferson.

Photo: An artist's rendering shows the proposed official logo for Kissimmee. The new design adds the phrase "In God We Trust." (CITY OF KISSIMMEE / July 22, 2009)

Adel Czubrenski, 88, of Winter Haven had just left the front entrance of St. Ann's Catholic in Haines City.

Then, oh-my-God, she was run over by a driver who appeared to have pushed the gas pedal instead of the brake.

Police said the driver backed out of a handicap parking spot, backed over Czubrenski and accelerated into a tree, causing extensive damage to the vehicle. The crash is still being investigated and charges are pending, police said.

Poor Czubrenski was flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center for treatment of her injuries, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Some churches are known for their choirs. Some have charismatic leaders.

The Westboro Baptist Church is best known for traveling around the country to protest at military funerals.

Over the weekend a family of Westboro members stood outside the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

Rachel and Charles Hockenbarger brought their seven children to carry signs with messages like "You're going to hell" or "God is your enemy," reports News4Jax.

"They are a false church and lying church and really a whorehouse and dog kennel," Rachel Hockenbarger said. "Their gospel -- so to speak -- is going to take everyone to hell."

Huh???

But that isn't all.

During the protest, one of the Westboro Baptist members dragged an American flag dipped in blood on the ground while they stepped on it. They said it was done to symbolize their beliefs against abortion.

"It's the respect it deserves, right there on the ground with my foot on top of it," Rachel Hockenbarger said. "It's not a flag that needs to be held up high and waved. The international symbol for distress is that you fly it upside down, so we fly it upside down outside our church in Topeka, Kansas, because our nation is in distress."

You've just entered a "rock 'n' roll church" run by Tony Cilluffo at the Bourbon Street nightclub in New Port Richey, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Cilluffo's ministry reaches out to people who feel too uncomfortable going to a conventional church.

Here, each Sunday, people gather around the stage in the back of the dimly lit bar. They're listening to a sermon, reading scriptures and, of course, enjoying a bit of rock 'n' roll — from local Christian bands.

"We minister Jesus through the music," he said.

Cilluffo, an artist who owns a motorcycle body shop called Soft Touch Studios, airbrushes Harley Davidson motorcycles and talks to customers about God and the Bible.

But it hasn't always been this way. He once worked as a bouncer at a bar.

As his wife and 17-year-old son followed in the family truck, he walked down the west side of the busy road, hoisting two flags: the American flag, and above it…

“This is the Christian flag,” said Price of the worn white flag, blank but for a blue square in the corner, encompassing a red cross.

Price claims that he and members of his family have walked the flag here from Texas, all part of a mission to walk the entire external border of the United States or America, a mission they say comes from the highest authority, reports the Naples Daily News.

“The American flag used to represent what that Christian flag represents,” said Neecie Price, who takes shifts with the flag, relieving her husband when he gets tired.

The voyage began nearly a decade ago. Neecie Price was driving from Tulsa, Okla., to Irving when she said God, who she affectionately calls “Daddy,” appeared to her for the first time.

We can't help but wonder if she also see the Virgin Mary in grilled cheese sandwiches.

But we digress.

They started west on January 2, 2002, when Patrick Price left his job painting aircraft for a journey they thought would only take a couple of years. The family started out homeless, living out of a van with a 9-year-old son.

Now they have a 40-foot travel trailer; like most of their possessions, it was given to them by people inspired by their story.

Since the beginning of their mission, the Prices claim to have spoken directly with God on several occasions.

When they were in Louisiana in 2003, he told them how to command hurricanes to downgrade or turn away, they said, and he's taught them to split storm clouds.

We wonder if he ever told 'em, "Go home."

Patrick Price said that since he entered Florida two motorists have even veered off the road in an attempt to hit him.

Hate to tell them that happens all the time and just wait til they make it around the whole state. They'll have a lot more things to talk to God about by then.

“This is not a Pat and Neecie thing, this is very much a Daddy thing,” Neecie Price said.

Global Media Outreach — a ministry of Orlando-based Campus Crusade for Christ International — has formed a partnership with Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood to recruit and train 5,000 online missionaries by 2010, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Global Media has more than 90 Web sites aimed at search-engine seekers of God.

Type in a query about Jesus, and WhoIeJesus-Re ally.com shows up in the results.

Type in a question about God's existence and Jesus2020.com shows up as a sponsored link.

And it's not carrying condoms, a move the supermarket chain said was a “business decision” based on space and perceived customer preference, adding there was no prohibition on their sale.

Town co-developer Monaghan made national news a few years ago stating the town would restrict the sale of contraceptives, reports the Naples Daily News.

Catholic Church teaching prohibits the use of contraception, just so you know.

Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten added that other stores the same size as Ave Maria’s don't sell contraceptives. “If it’s something that folks want then we’ll get it, if it’s not then we probably won’t,” she said.

Howard Simon, the ACLU director, called the lack of contraception at Publix, “another building block in moving toward a picture of a community where the laws reflect religious beliefs.”

He cited the community’s urgent care clinic not offering emergency contraception as another concern for him.

At first, it was just a cracked window, but over time the image formed and one day Greg Sapp spotted the image.

He and his wife consider the image a miracle.

"I don't know how we kept the lid on it this long," he said.

But there is always the risk of an overreaction to some images that resemble Mary, and the Sapps say they don't want that.

"The Cheetos, the burned toast, the swirl of chocolate," she said. "There's a burned spot in a frying pan somewhere people are flocking to."

They keep the window in the temperature- and humidity-controlled, windowless room with a digital camera trained on it. There's a computer feed of images.

People can subscribe to a video feed or view the images free on the Internet at visionsofthevirginmary.com, she said.

A few religious items are for sale on the Web site, such as rosaries, and people can pay to have a candle lit at the window.

Greg Sapp said he doesn't know yet what to do with the proceeds or if there will be much, but he hopes he can finance the work of some lay workers in the church, help some monasteries and convents and dig some wells in Africa.

The real test of faith: Will they keep it off eBay?

Photo: TERRY DICKSON/The Times-Union
Debbie Sapp stands with a window that she and her husband, Greg, have placed in a sort of temporary shrine after it developed what appeared to be an image of the Virgin Mary

The Cowboy Church — bringing Jesus to rodeo riders, barrel racers, ranchers, farmers and Western wannabes — is spreading across Florida and the Southeast in a growing effort to bring religion to those who don't much care for church, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

"We are seeing a lot of people come into the cowboy-church movement who don't normally go to church," said Jay Avant, pastor of Milltown Cowboy Church near Davenport.

Meeting in barns, horse arenas and pastures, the Cowboy Church appeals to the unpretentious, the plain-spoken and the keepers of the culture of saddles, Stetsons and pointy-toed boots.

There are baptisms in horse troughs, a Cowboy Bible and the Ten Commandments translated into the language of John Wayne: No foolin' around with another fellow's gal; don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff; honor yer Ma and Pa.

Avant's two churches — one that meets on a ranch near Davenport and another that congregates in a St. Cloud open-air barn — belong to the Cowboy Church Network of North America, which has grown to more than 60 churches in the Southeast and Canada since its founding in 2004.

Florida — especially Central Florida, with its strong ranch culture — has plenty of people attracted by the cowboy-church ethos of "come as you are." Manure on the boots is acceptable.

On a table is a tin bucket with "Donations" written on the side, the closest thing the cowboy church has to a collection plate.

About a dozen people, many in jeans, boots and cowboy hats, sit on metal folding chairs listening to Avant preach his homespun sermon of Christ's sacrifice. He reminds his congregation that Jesus was born in a manger not unlike the horse barn.

Now 70 Rapture-awaiting believers have paid Witter to be their post-apocalyptic postman, delivering cards and letters to their non-believing friends, relatives and neighbors who will be left behind when the Day of Reckoning arrives, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Witter started his website -- postrapturepost.com -- as a joke, a satiric jab at those who see things like the swine flu, economic collapse and the election of a liberal president as sure signs the end is near.

But then he started receiving orders for his merchandise.

Since 2005, Witter said he has sold more than 200 items, most of them T-shirts and coffee mugs, and many of those (he admits) to friends and fellow atheists.

Among the best sellers are the line of I-Told-You-So cards, which sell for $8.

Some who ordered the cards -- Witter suspects they are not actually Christians -- are willing to pay extra to have them sent early as Christmas cards.

"Your hope lies with me. I am your mailman," he vows. "I'll do my best come Hell or high water to deliver those letters."

On the other hand, should the Rapture not arrive in his lifetime, he gets to keep the money, which he promises to use to subsidize his sinful lifestyle.

Photo: Atheist Joshua Witter sells cards to Christians that he will deliver to those left behind after the rapture. (Roberto Gonzalez, Orlando Sentinel / May 15, 2009)

The 5,000-acre town the religious vision of Domino's Pizza tycoon Tom Monaghan. It's between Naples and Immokalee. It takes 20 minutes to reach Interstate 75 if you ignore the speed limit.

It's so remote that conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh's radio show crackles with static on the AM dial, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

There is a Monaghan museum it the office of Ave Maria Development, overseer of the entire project. Monaghan's credo stares down from a display: "I believe my mission is to get as many people to heaven as possible."

Ave Maria's projected population of 11,000 stands at about 500.

The town is home to one of Florida’s most impressive modern churches. Its interior steel-beam vaulting rises 104 feet. You can see it from miles away.

Monaghan wants to give the massive 1,100-seat church to the Diocese of Venice.
But the Catholic bishop is reluctant to assume the upkeep, including the frightening air conditioning demands. Big church, so few parishioners.

The town's coffee shop is called the Bean and there are pictures of the Virgin Mary on the wall.
The Bean serves up conservative sentiments on its cups: "Tolerance without conviction is the same as apathy" — Chesterton.

But thank God they do serve a cold beer.
The Bean serves bottled beer in a town without a grocery, at least until the Publix opens this summer. And an English-style pub is opening soon. It's called the Queen Mary after England's 16th-century Catholic monarch.

For those who like living in a religious retreat-like environment we say "AMEN!"

Photo: [KERI WIGINTON | Times]
Some at the Jarrett Ford Lincoln Mercury in Dade City think they see Jesus in a wood-stained door at the dealership. “One of our vendors noticed it,” said Ruth Johnson, the receptionist. “It kind of looks like the arms and the hair.”

Rebecca Hancock, 49, is a Clay County social worker and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves.

She joined the conservative Grace Community Church in Mandarin a year ago as her three-year-long divorce proceedings were nearing an end.

Her 18-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son also joined, reports Jacksonville.com

Ms. Hancock also has a boyfriend.

Last October, the church informed her it would make her "sexually immoral relationship" with her boyfriend public at a Jan. 4 church service.

So she sent the church a letter resigning. She hoped that would stop the action so her children, who attend services there, wouldn't face any embarrassment.

The church's pastor, the Rev. T. Scott Christmas, said the discipline process outlined in his Dec. 8 letter will continue.

Hancock started dating the boyfriend a few months before her divorce was final.

She confided that fact to a woman at church whom she went to for "guidance, assistance and counsel." But that woman told church officials.

Her confidant also hugged her and led her to a meeting with some of the church's female members.

"They all went after me," Hancock said. "One of the ladies said, 'I know you haven't come home at night because I was at your house and I saw you not come home.'

She thought the ordeal was over.

Photo: BRUCE LIPSKY/The Times-Union

Then her son brought the church's letter home.

"Our love for you compels us to pursue that which is best for you," the letter starts.

Stating she is "involved in a sexually immoral relationship with a man who is not your husband," it adds that such behavior can be repented and forgiven by God.

But because Hancock rebuffed efforts by church elders to resolve the issue, the letters states, "you leave us with no other choice but to carry out the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ" - namely "tell it to the church" - on Jan. 4.

So what would you tell the church? And to a minister whose name is -- get this -- Christmas?

The Fort Pierce woman who put her MRI scan on eBay sold it for $730, reports TCPalm.com.

Pamela Latrimore, 42, says the MRI has an image that looks like the Virgin Mary. Apparently others agree.

An anonymous bidder from Santa Ana, Calif., made the successful bid of $730.

Latrimore was without insurance and facing mounting medical bills when she decided to sell the scan on eBay.

Latrimore has been sick for years with cancer, arthritis and a series of serious ailments she blames on a childhood in Jacksonville, Ark., a place that has been investigated by the U.S. government for possible dioxin exposure.

Do you see the Virgin Mary in her scan?

Photo by Juan Dale Brown
In this 2002 MRI scan view of Pamela Latrimore's brain, some see the Virgin Mary.

BARBARA HIJEK has spent the best years of her life doing news research in Florida, the most news-warpy place in the universe. She's still passed all her drug tests and remains Prozac free. Barbara graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in her hometown. Talk about culture shock! She is single and has lived in Fort Lauderdale for the past decade. Prior to that Barbara lived in Clearwater for a dozen years. Truly a bicoastal Floridian. And she still can't figure out which coast is wackier...